Carrie Gelson at There's a Book for That, started the #MustRead community. I have been joining in for the last four or five years. If you have a "want to read" list on Goodreads (or somewhere else) that goes on forever, then you might be interested in joining. This is my final update for 2020. It includes books published in 2020 as well as some that have been around for decades.
I achieved almost all my reading goals this year. I started out with a plan to read from four categories of books: fiction, nonfiction, Indigenous authors and Canadian authors. You can read more about that here.
If you click on a linked it title, you will be taken to the books goodreads page where you can read more about it and add it to your own want to read list.
GENERAL FICTION
My goal was to read at least 24 novels from a curated list. Almost all of the books on it are there because they received stellar reviews or because they are authors whose work I adore. I gave five stars to sixteen of the twenty-five fiction titles I finished. They impressed me for different reasons.
A few that stand out include:
Anthem (The Sixties Trilogy, #3) by Deborah WilesKent State by Deborah Wiles
Hollowpox: The Hunt for Morrigan Crow by Jessica Townsend
NONFICTION
My goal was to read at least 12 titles from this curated list. I would have finished my Nonfiction Goal except that I was blindsided by an ARC - Legacy: Women Poets of the Harlem Renaissance by Nikki Grimes. So I only finished eleven. I'm not bothered (well maybe I am a wee bit) because the purpose of this goal was to increase my nonfiction reading. Since I started keeping this goal, I read much more nonfiction in general. I guess what I'm saying is that even if I didn't reach my goal here, I still think it has been a success.
Almost all of the books I read knocked my socks off, but some of them helped me understand other perspectives and see the world in new ways.
Waiting for First Light: My Ongoing Battle with PTSD by Roméo Dallaire
Chop Suey Nation: The Legion Cafe and Other Stories from Canada’s Chinese Restaurants by Ann Hui
The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks by Rebecca Skloot
INDIGENOUS AUTHORS
I read 30 titles by Indigenous authors this year. They included picture books, nonfiction, graphic novels, realistic and speculative fiction. They were all pretty spectacular. I accomplished my goal, but when I look back at the year, I see that I have mostly stayed with people I already knew (especially with regards to my novel reading). Next year I'm going to try and read more new to me authors.
A few that gobsmacked me include:
You can see the rest of this list here.
Canada has a rich wealth of authors and illustrators who don't receive the attention and credit they deserve. I do my best to highlight them in my blog.
I read about 120 books by Canadian authors last year. (I say about because I may well have missed adding books to this list.) If you add Indigenous Canadians, it makes up almost half of my reading life. This makes me very happy!
Although I read many remarkable Canadian titles last year, one has stuck with me. When We Were Vikings is a debut novel by Andrew David MacDonald. I have been encouraging people to read this book since I first read it last January. If it isn't the best book I read all year, it's in the top five. I took Zelda and her clan into my heart and can't seem to let go of them. I'm really hoping for a sequel to find out how they are all doing.
Here are other books I appreciated:
Novels
Sara and the Search for Normal by Wesley King
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